Miniature Medals – Boxer and Mexican Border

Miniature medals are smaller versions of regular medals to be worn on evening dress uniforms or civilian evening dress, usually on the lapel. Although some official medals were presented cased with a miniature, in my experience most minis were privately purchased and don’t command the higher prices of full size official issue medals. I don’t usually collect minis, but these two made it into my collection.

The silver one is the German Campaign medal for the Boxer Rebellion of 1900-1901, which I’ll write more about in an accompanying post. I’d love to have a full size version, but they are scarce enough that I settled on this for now. The front depicts the German Eagle defeating a Chinese Dragon. The back has the crowned cipher of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the words “VERDIENST UM DIE EXPEDITION NACH CHINA” (Merit during the expedition to China). This would be a non-combatant version of the medal. The combatant versions were bronze and had “to the victorious combatants” on back. The medals were first issued in 1901, and although this mini is of unknown age, I doubt non-combatant minis for this small campaign were produced after the original recipients had died out. The full size non-combatant medals were issued in steel, but this mini is made from a non-ferrous, non-tarnishing, bright silver colored metal.

The other mini is for a US Army Mexican Border Service Medal, awarded for service patrolling the border between 1916 and 1917. President Wilson deployed large numbers of soldiers to counter cross-border incursions by bandits and guerillas during that period. The mini, like the original, is bronze – although this bronze is more reddish. It came to me as part of a group of other medals from this period, and for a better view, I have a full size version posted here:

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/173325-spanish-war-and-mexican-border-service-m